Rich on the Road

 

Carrollton, TX

I've been promising more pictures and copy on Machu Picchu -- a stop our mission team from Prince of Peace Lutheran in Carrollton is hoping to make in about two weeks -- the rest and relaxation payoff after what we hope is fruitful work in and around an orphanage outside Lima, Peru.

Most of our team members have been to Peru -- but not to its most famous tourist destination.  There are a handful of sites in the world that every traveler has on his or her must-see list.  I cannot imagine that Machu Picchu is not on yours – the awesome Incan city that the Spaniards never found and never looted, the hidden enclave high in the Andes and deep in the jungle, surrounded by jagged peaks and plunging valleys.

Machu Picchu

Until very recently, if was thought that the visually stunning ruins were not discovered by the outside world until 1911, when Hiram Bingham, an archeologist and explorer from Yale stumbled on it.

 

  Now, it turns out, there is evidence that a German team got there much earlier and looted much of the treasure.  That's a still developing story and adds to mystery of a place that still intrigues and puzzles archeologists today.

Steep Drop From Machu Picchu to the Urubamba

Thirty years ago it was an arduous trek that only a select few had the time, the money or the physical endurance to make.  Today Machu Picchu is more accessible to average tourists, some think too accessible.  The last leg of the journey is by bus and train from Cuzco, the ancient capitol of the Incas.  Our train ride in 2004 began with a series of switchbacks, the train going forward and backward and forward as it zigzags up the mountain side.  Train rides often bare the soul of a city and this one certainly does with Cuzco, past urban trash, adobe homes clinging to the steep slope in layers, past real Peruvians living 21st century lives.  Once outside Cuzco, neat rural farms, terraced fields, and small villages rolled past - corn, sweet potatoes, sheep, cows and a mule “mowing” the grass on a soccer field.

 

Catherine in Cuzco

For much of the way you follow the Urubamba River; it starts small and then suddenly the valley deepens and the train begins another series of switchbacks, this time zigzagging down into the valley and across the river.  More isolated settlements appeared but the towering granite spires are too steep for even the Peruvians to terrace and farm.  The valley widened and plains appeared before we entered the largest village on the route, Ollantaytambo.  Not far from here the Inca trail begins, an arduous four-day hike (there are shorter variations to take including a one-day walk) that trekkers revere.  As we pulled out of the station oxen teams could be seen pulling plows, single blades of iron on wooden frames.  More cows and chickens and whole families working in the fields together.  But there were modern-looking houses and a rock quarry with big trucks, too. 

 

     The valley disappeared and the terrain changed.  We were moving from the Andes to the jungle.  Green mountain tops piled high, one behind the other, soaring into the clouds, sometimes so high that their peaks were lost in the clouds.  Waterfalls cascaded in ribbons down the steep slopes and the roar of the Urubamba grew loud enough to be heard over the noise of the train.  The Urubamba and all the streams that feed it are headed for the Amazon basin.  It quickly became a raging monster, with huge boulders and foaming, muddy water.  The trees grew larger and, on the slopes outside our window, cactus plants were replaced by ferns.  By the time we reached Aguas Calientes, the end of the line, we found ourselves in a full-fledged tropical forest. It was a wondrous four-hour journey.

 

 

     Aguas Calientes is now also referred to as Machu Picchu Village but don’t be confused.  It’s the same place.  The village is at the bottom of the valley.  Machu Picchu is almost straight up the hillside.  Again, a lot of zigzagging back and forth to get there.  This may be the most dramatic terrain you will ever encounter.  The road really does cling to the mountainside.  Beyond the Urubamba valley there were soaring peaks shaped like arrowheads or shark teeth – a whole mountain range full of teeth, sharp but covered all the way to their points by vegetation.

  

 

Once out of the bus, and through the park gates, Machu Picchu opened in front of us.  We concluded that all the pictures we’d seen beforehand do Machu Picchu justice, but just barely.  On second thought – you have to see the place to believe it.

Anyway, that's some of what I remember.  I'm looking forward to the return trip.  And, to our work in Lima.

Rich